This is just what I think why the leaked design is real, and why you shoudn't be disappointed, and why its not an evolutionary update. I would like to highlight 2 main areas, and maybe possibly add in more.
Warning: Super lengthy post. I spent an hour doing this thread.
Stainless Steel band (Antenna)
The thing I want to highlight here in this picture, is the stainless steel band around the phone. The iPhone, had the external antenna stainless steel band design since 2010, or since the iPhone 4. Apple designed the antenna is such a way that it is situated outside the phone, which is said to improve reception. That is true, especially many positive feedbacks about lesser dropped calls and that is of course if users don't strangle the bottom left antenna to death (Which I don't see why you should do that. ) for the iPhone 4. That problem has since been easily rectified in the next iteration (4S)
In Apple's perspective, Apple would want to maintain the antenna design. The antenna design is considered to be the epitome of how an antenna should be designed in such a way that it is practical, yet is not intrusive to the user. It is practical as in it improves reception, it is not intrusive in such a way that it will not affect the overall aesthetics of the device by much. That's why I think the antenna band design is still kept by Apple for the next iPhone.
When people say they're disappointed by the leaked iPhones, most of them were actually disappointed by the form factor (No teardrop?) And what gives the current iPhone its form factor? Mainly the back, and of course the stainless steel band. What I can say is when you ask for designs like that one below, you're actually asking for a design that had no practicality or advantages, perhaps only appealing to the eyes. You clearly can't place the external antenna to be as least intrusive as possible than the stainless steel band. How about a black bar at the back of the phone like the iPod touch? No.
When Apple designs a product, it make sures that it has the design appeal + has a certain functionality to it. And from the looks of it, the stainless steel design is here to stay.
Display, in relation to iOS
I'm sure you guys are very familiar with this. We all want a Longer and WIDER iPhone.
Yes, personally, I would want a iPhone with a longer and wider screen size which makes the iPhone screen really look larger. But still, after I saw that Apple is going for the longer screen size, I thought for a while and realized it makes sense.
This is the alleged iOS home screen with the longer display, as many of you might have saw before. If Apple makes the screen wider, it either has to make the icons bigger (What?!) to accomodate the extra width OR add a fifth row of icon vertically. So now, there are 5 rows of icons. Add in the longer dimension of the screen, Apple now has 5 rows of icons, with each row having 5 Apps. It would look VERY weird.
Sorry for the poor editing. Did it with a combination of MS paint and Microsoft word And there are duplicate apps of course. What do you expect from a 10 min job of MS paint?
While you guys are complaining about how iOS looks plain with icons, adding the width with will only makes your mind spin and eyes blurred having to see more icons and boxes. However, by simply just making the iPhone longer, it does not create as much sense of clutter as much as an increased width and length would.
And also, it seems like Apple would never add widgets to the iPhone. So increasing the display size dramatically to 4.3inches or so will only make room for more and more and more and more and more and more and more icons, sad to say.
Of course, I'm not saying that an much bigger iPhone is in fact detrimental. In fact, its great for web browisng, watching videos, playing games and using apps. Of course, if you can do all that on a 3.5 inch screen perfectly fine, the additional space is only a bonus. Once you click the home screen back again, you will be facing the same clutter of icons that boggles your mind. That's what happened to me when I used the galaxy note of my friend's.
The Galaxy note is one thing. If the iPhone decides to make the screen as big if not comparable to the note, it would be confusing. Why? iOS app icons are square and rounded, while the Galaxy note does not have square or rounded icons but instead has straightforward icons with no square outlines around it, which creates an empty space, reducing the sense of clutter. iOS simply does not cut it if they decide to stuff all the icons into a galaxy note like display.
And of course, Apple would want to make transition to a larger screen easier, so a longer screen is easier to manage than a wider and longer screen, not to say if you increase the width you would have to watch the dimension of the screen and the aspect ratio as well. This would make it more and more complicated.
Increasing the width only is even weirder than simply increasing the length. Somehow, I feel that this would make the iPhone's screen abit blackberry-ish (Wider screen, shorter length).
So while the best is to increase both the length and width, increasing the length now is the way to go, unless Apple finds practical way to increase both the width and length without adding more and more icons.
This thought on the screen size, is of course a little biased. I won't mind a constructive criticism.
UPDATE/EDIT:
Here is a picture to justify my point:
2nd Update:
Revising my thoughts and to add in a few points, people have been proposing solutions such that no additional rows or icons can be made and the icons can be spaced out further just like the iPad.
However, it isn't a solution.
Again, apologies for the lousy piece of crappy editing done again by MS paint and MS word. Was tad lazy because of the heat, hence same icons for each row. But you get my point. And I'll take the cluttered one over this in my opinion.
When you increase the screen size, its only natural that you put in more content with the extra amount of screen and space you have. But by spacing out the icons further away from one another, you're actually create a sense of emptiness. As in, your home screen would no longer look the same and now looks even more plain and boring with extra spaces in between. The trick to grid icon layout is to maintain a right amount of space in between the icons. Expanding and spacing them out too far away again affects user experience, so to speak.
Also, if you make the icons bigger, you may end up with a nearly windows phone like icons and tiles. Enlarging the icons serve no purpose other than to make up for the extra unwanted space in between apps in not the way apple designs things. If they were to enlarge the icons, they would first have to make it has some form of function.
And if you refer to the image of the alleged iOS 6 and iOS 5.1 layout which I posted earlier (Scroll up), you realise you will much like the iOS 6.0 one with 1 extra row with equal and right amount of spacing than the iOS 5.1 with spaced out icons. Maybe its just me.
Again, when Apple does a design change, it usually has reason. For example, the new coloured bar on top of the screen which fits the app in iOS 6 is also a change to unify and enhance user experience.
Also, apps experience. Apps is said to be able to display MORE content if you increase the length rather than the width. Take Safari for example. Would you rather sentences be displayed much longer with more words displayed to the sides with the extra width or would you rather Safari display more content and paragraphs of the webpage below it by increasing the length?
And by the way, width is something you can't increase too much, lest you want the iPhone to become a blackberry.
So therefore, be glad Apple is eventually said to at least increase the length, which still brings many advantages of a bigger screened iPhone. A wider iPhone is said to be even better, but it brings many flaws. A longer iPhone screen does not bring any flaw which I can think of.
Unless you can correct me on this, I would stand by the fact that a longer iPhone is indeed better in the end, rather than a longer and wider iPhone- And the longer iPhone is all you will get.
Warning: Super lengthy post. I spent an hour doing this thread.
Stainless Steel band (Antenna)
The thing I want to highlight here in this picture, is the stainless steel band around the phone. The iPhone, had the external antenna stainless steel band design since 2010, or since the iPhone 4. Apple designed the antenna is such a way that it is situated outside the phone, which is said to improve reception. That is true, especially many positive feedbacks about lesser dropped calls and that is of course if users don't strangle the bottom left antenna to death (Which I don't see why you should do that. ) for the iPhone 4. That problem has since been easily rectified in the next iteration (4S)
In Apple's perspective, Apple would want to maintain the antenna design. The antenna design is considered to be the epitome of how an antenna should be designed in such a way that it is practical, yet is not intrusive to the user. It is practical as in it improves reception, it is not intrusive in such a way that it will not affect the overall aesthetics of the device by much. That's why I think the antenna band design is still kept by Apple for the next iPhone.
When people say they're disappointed by the leaked iPhones, most of them were actually disappointed by the form factor (No teardrop?) And what gives the current iPhone its form factor? Mainly the back, and of course the stainless steel band. What I can say is when you ask for designs like that one below, you're actually asking for a design that had no practicality or advantages, perhaps only appealing to the eyes. You clearly can't place the external antenna to be as least intrusive as possible than the stainless steel band. How about a black bar at the back of the phone like the iPod touch? No.
When Apple designs a product, it make sures that it has the design appeal + has a certain functionality to it. And from the looks of it, the stainless steel design is here to stay.
Display, in relation to iOS
I'm sure you guys are very familiar with this. We all want a Longer and WIDER iPhone.
Yes, personally, I would want a iPhone with a longer and wider screen size which makes the iPhone screen really look larger. But still, after I saw that Apple is going for the longer screen size, I thought for a while and realized it makes sense.
This is the alleged iOS home screen with the longer display, as many of you might have saw before. If Apple makes the screen wider, it either has to make the icons bigger (What?!) to accomodate the extra width OR add a fifth row of icon vertically. So now, there are 5 rows of icons. Add in the longer dimension of the screen, Apple now has 5 rows of icons, with each row having 5 Apps. It would look VERY weird.
Sorry for the poor editing. Did it with a combination of MS paint and Microsoft word And there are duplicate apps of course. What do you expect from a 10 min job of MS paint?
While you guys are complaining about how iOS looks plain with icons, adding the width with will only makes your mind spin and eyes blurred having to see more icons and boxes. However, by simply just making the iPhone longer, it does not create as much sense of clutter as much as an increased width and length would.
And also, it seems like Apple would never add widgets to the iPhone. So increasing the display size dramatically to 4.3inches or so will only make room for more and more and more and more and more and more and more icons, sad to say.
Of course, I'm not saying that an much bigger iPhone is in fact detrimental. In fact, its great for web browisng, watching videos, playing games and using apps. Of course, if you can do all that on a 3.5 inch screen perfectly fine, the additional space is only a bonus. Once you click the home screen back again, you will be facing the same clutter of icons that boggles your mind. That's what happened to me when I used the galaxy note of my friend's.
The Galaxy note is one thing. If the iPhone decides to make the screen as big if not comparable to the note, it would be confusing. Why? iOS app icons are square and rounded, while the Galaxy note does not have square or rounded icons but instead has straightforward icons with no square outlines around it, which creates an empty space, reducing the sense of clutter. iOS simply does not cut it if they decide to stuff all the icons into a galaxy note like display.
And of course, Apple would want to make transition to a larger screen easier, so a longer screen is easier to manage than a wider and longer screen, not to say if you increase the width you would have to watch the dimension of the screen and the aspect ratio as well. This would make it more and more complicated.
Increasing the width only is even weirder than simply increasing the length. Somehow, I feel that this would make the iPhone's screen abit blackberry-ish (Wider screen, shorter length).
So while the best is to increase both the length and width, increasing the length now is the way to go, unless Apple finds practical way to increase both the width and length without adding more and more icons.
This thought on the screen size, is of course a little biased. I won't mind a constructive criticism.
UPDATE/EDIT:
Here is a picture to justify my point:
2nd Update:
Revising my thoughts and to add in a few points, people have been proposing solutions such that no additional rows or icons can be made and the icons can be spaced out further just like the iPad.
However, it isn't a solution.
Again, apologies for the lousy piece of crappy editing done again by MS paint and MS word. Was tad lazy because of the heat, hence same icons for each row. But you get my point. And I'll take the cluttered one over this in my opinion.
When you increase the screen size, its only natural that you put in more content with the extra amount of screen and space you have. But by spacing out the icons further away from one another, you're actually create a sense of emptiness. As in, your home screen would no longer look the same and now looks even more plain and boring with extra spaces in between. The trick to grid icon layout is to maintain a right amount of space in between the icons. Expanding and spacing them out too far away again affects user experience, so to speak.
Also, if you make the icons bigger, you may end up with a nearly windows phone like icons and tiles. Enlarging the icons serve no purpose other than to make up for the extra unwanted space in between apps in not the way apple designs things. If they were to enlarge the icons, they would first have to make it has some form of function.
And if you refer to the image of the alleged iOS 6 and iOS 5.1 layout which I posted earlier (Scroll up), you realise you will much like the iOS 6.0 one with 1 extra row with equal and right amount of spacing than the iOS 5.1 with spaced out icons. Maybe its just me.
Again, when Apple does a design change, it usually has reason. For example, the new coloured bar on top of the screen which fits the app in iOS 6 is also a change to unify and enhance user experience.
Also, apps experience. Apps is said to be able to display MORE content if you increase the length rather than the width. Take Safari for example. Would you rather sentences be displayed much longer with more words displayed to the sides with the extra width or would you rather Safari display more content and paragraphs of the webpage below it by increasing the length?
And by the way, width is something you can't increase too much, lest you want the iPhone to become a blackberry.
So therefore, be glad Apple is eventually said to at least increase the length, which still brings many advantages of a bigger screened iPhone. A wider iPhone is said to be even better, but it brings many flaws. A longer iPhone screen does not bring any flaw which I can think of.
Unless you can correct me on this, I would stand by the fact that a longer iPhone is indeed better in the end, rather than a longer and wider iPhone- And the longer iPhone is all you will get.
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